III-2 LL    Third Year English  for English minors (surnames A-Z, curriculum LL)
Terza annualità per gli studenti di inglese seconda lingua, cognomi A-Z, curriculum LL

  Module  “The future of English”

Regulations, credits – Regolamenti, CFU> 
Assessment – Esame: contenuti e date> 
Your data – Iscrizioni, presenze, voti> 
Office hours – Ore di ricevimento> 

 <Programma e testi – Syllabus, set texts
 <Sunto delle lezioni – Recap of lessons
 <Attività di ricerca – Research tasks
 <Notizie, avvisi – News, Messages

Monday, Tuesday & Friday,  3-5 pm.  Room A
 Lunedì,  MARTedì,  Venerdì,  ore  15-17,  Aula A 

SYLLABUS,  SET TEXTS,  HANDOUTS 
 

Syllabus 

 
Module: “The future of English”  

     .What do we mean by 'English' and 'learning English' in our globalized yet fragmented world? How is English evolving? Partial answers will be sought through ethnographic field work in multi-ethnic Rome.

     Cos'è 'l'inglese' nel nostro mondo globalizzato e frantumato? Quale evoluzione sta subendo? Come bisogna impararlo? Usando strumenti etnografici si cercheranno risposte sul campo, nella Roma multietnica.

The organizational aspects of the module -- requirements and credits, evaluation 
   criteria and so on – are indicated in the main menu.   The Reading List follows.   
 

 Set texts
("programma")

 
1. Book: D. Graddol. 2006. English Next: Why global English may mean the end of ‘English as a Foreign Language’. British Council, London.
Non attenders read all 130 pages. Attenders read the pages covered during the lesson.
To read or download the text click here>   Note: the file is in PDF format. To read it your PC must have a PDF reader. You can download one, if needed, by clicking here (it's free of charge).

2. Monograph: P. Boylan. “To be or not to be: success or failure in intercultural communication”, in D. Lynch and A. Pilbeam (eds.), Heritage and progress in intercultural understanding, LTS/SIETAR, Bath, 2000, pp. 106-116.  
To read the text click here>    To download the text click here> . 
Note: For both attenders and non attenders. 
 
3. Monograph  P. Boylan “Il come e il perché degli esami”
Attention: The exam will contain questions on this text!
To view the text click here>    To download the text click here> . 
Note: Although aimed at non-attenders, the text constitutes exam material for all students since it analyzes what it means to "know" English in the context of the exams for this Course.  (International students: read the English version; Italian students: read the Italian version as it discusses your particular situation in more detail).
 

     
    NOTE for STUDENTS FROM LETTERE AND OTHER DEGREE COURSES    
Students from the corso di laurea in Lettere (and other degree courses) who need 4 credits are to study all three texts (1., 2., 3.), valid for 3 credits, plus a fourth text for the fourth credit:.
David Graddol, The Future of English>  (another short book by Graddol)

 

 Handouts 
 
("Dispense per i soli frequentanti -- i non frequentanti NON devono leggere questi testi.")

<cliccare                     "Learning language as culture" (in italiano)
 
Documento storico di 20 anni fa: è il Manifesto (la prima dichiarazione di principio scritto in lingua italiana) di una nuova concezione di apprendimento delle lingue vive, basata sull'introiezione culturale.
La pagina riprodotta è la Postfazione al volume Accenti sull'America di Patrick Boylan, Roma: Armando Curcio Editore, 1987, p. 387. In glottodidattica, "Learning language as culture" viene chiamato anche "l'approccio comunicativo-culturale".

 
Cultural Parameters Illustrated: How to predict communication friction.
Slides from a course by Linda Beamer, California State University, Los Angeles, 2001,
and modified by Patrick Boylan for University of Rome III students, 2002.
Warning: To see this text, your computer must have a PowerPoint Viewer (most do).  
You can get one free at www.microsoft.com  (enter “PowerPoint viewer”
in the search box or, for a direct link, click here).
 

 
Common European Framework of Reference (CEF)
You'll hear teachers at Roma Tre (and elsewhere) speak of the Common European Framework (CEF) levels of competence in a second language. For example, our university entry test is targeted for Level B1 in reading ability and A2 in speaking ability. What does this mean? Click the orange dot if you want to know more about the system (which many people criticize as simplistic, so it will probably undergo change in the near future).
 

Learn English on the Internet... FREE (no fees to teachers or schools!)
Clicking on the orange dot will open a page full of Internet sites where you can practice and extend your English. But you have to know how to distinguish what sites are most useful to you. This means asking yourself (1.) what learning English really means and thus (2.) what kinds of competence you need to acquire and only then (3.) what exercises are best for you.

     
Discussing ideas using British Academic English
McAlister,  S R (2001)  “A study of peer argumentation and its measurement.” Chapter from a Ph.D thesis (tesi di laurea di specializzazione). The Open University, Milton Keynes, UK
 

     
Using connectives and paragraphs in argumentative text.
 
A lesson from the web course:
Daly, B. (1997) Writing Argumentative Essays. TLS Centre, Victoria University, Australia.
 

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LESSONS
 

Room A or B

Seating Arrangement of groups
 
Groups consist of 6 students, 3 in front and 3 behind, like this:

This arrangement allows everyone to participate in the group discussions.
  

     
AFTER EACH LESSON, SEE HERE FOR THE SLIDES/NOTES USED.
 

06.10.06

 
(1) background to the concepts of “the evolution of English” and “globalized world”;
 
(2.) practice in writing a composition in English describing the contents of a text*
 Instructions here.  Text here. (D. Graddol, English Next, Section “English as a lingua franca”)
 

09.10.06

 
Discussing ideas using British Academic English  

FIRST STEP: Preparing a position paper following the model downloadable here

Topic. English as a “lingua franca”

For David Graddol's position on this topic, click here. (D. Graddol, English Next, Section 2)
Next time you will be asked to write a comment on Graddol's position:, using the connectives illustrated in B. Daly's mini-course in Writing Composition downloadable here.
 
 

10.10.06

 
Class discussion: What does it mean in today's world to learn to "communicate" using the "English language"?  Let us first look at the word “communicate.”

• "Communicating" according to Jakobson (1982: 350-377 [1958]): Sender / message / context / coding / transmission / channel / Receiver / decoding.

• But in culturally asymmetrical situations, “communicating" means establishing a relationship (a contact in which concomitant changes are presumed to be reciprocally causal) in which to search for a common code

Homework: You have two (2) homework assignments to do by SUNDAY, October 15^th.: See Tasks 1 and 2 below (or click here and here)..
 

16.10.06

 
Photos.
 
Procedural question: Why are your learning to “be” differently when you speak English?
Why isn't it enough to use the language “correctly” (grammar, pragmatics)?
Notion of “formal accommodation” and “substantial accommodation”.
         (For accommodation theory click here.)

ADULT A: Example of “formal accommodation”: Adult A remains an adult with adult values when speaking to a child, and tries to “speak the child's language”: Ohhhhhh!!!! You have a N-I-I-I-I-CE toy!”

ADULT B: Example of “substantial accommodation”. Adult B forgets his adult values (he takes off his watch to forget the time, etc.) and tries to enter into a child's mentality when speaking to a child, in order to “speak the child's language”: [Sits down. Remains silent. Becomes curious about the toy. Starts to play with it... Then the child sits down, too, and the adult says:] Nice.

Speaking another language like English also means forgetting your Italian values FOR A MOMENT, entering into your interlocutor's values (R.P: speaker values, cockney speaker values, Texan values, Black Chicago Rapper values, or whatever), and speaking from within that world in order to speak your interlocutor's language.

If you don't want to do this, you don't have to. But you will pay the price.

For example, Adult A has every right to remain an adult, to remain himself.
But he will probably have little success with the child (il bambino “non lo fila”)
He should NOT say: “The child is terribly impolite!”. He should be conscious that he, the adult, made a choice (a perfectly legitimate choice) and how he is paying the price for it.

The same thing if you go to England. You can speak English as an Italian, that is a perfectly legitimate choice. But you will pay a price for it and you should not be angry when you have to pay for your choice.

English as a Lingua Franca (ELF)
Example:
Subjunctive
a. The author wants me to believe that ... (universal in the various Anglo cultures)
b. The author wants that I should believe that ... OR that I believe that .. (ELF)
(b. is a dated form in modern English, replaced by a.)

The student who wrote b. in her Report probably used it due to the influence of Italian where the equivalent of form b. is current (L'autore vuole che io creda che...). Her usage could therefore be considered an example of Interlingua, i.e. an intermediate state of English on the way to becoming more native-like.

However we can also consider form b. as a CORRECT construction in ELF. It is, in fact, frequent in ELF (probably because of the influence of L1 languages having it).  Note that in ELF form b. is “fixed” (figé); in other words, it is NOT an intermediate form on the way to becoming form a.. Therefore it cannot be considered an Interlingua, but rather an autonomous and valid construction within “International English”.

17.10.06

 
Self-managed class. 
Correction of Tasks 1 and 2. 
Recording.(first attempt).
 

20.10.06

 
Comments on the work done so far.

Task 1: Well done but the Group Leaders gave marks that were a little too high; next time the Group Leaders will loose points for the extra points they give;

Task 2: We'll have to do it over; almost everyone gave the cultural values of Tolkien or of an English R.P. speaker in stereotypical terms from an Italian viewpoint; here the points were exaggeratedly high, since the papers were not acceptable. This is not the fault of the students. I deliberately did not explain the task in detail to get you to think about how to define cultural values – in order to make my subsequent explanations more meaningful;

Task 3. Excellent. Some of the groups were really professional sounding (although, listening closely, one could hear that the discussion was not exactly, hem hem shall we say “spontaneous”). For the comments and the marks click YOUR DATA on the main menu.

Review: what is communication. (Most people didn't know any more. This demonstrates the value of lecture lessons -- nil.)

What is language?
-- For most linguists, a “code”.
-- For Saussure: as langue, a “verbal semiotic system”;
                          as parole, instances of language (but not mere instantiations of langue!!).
-- For this course: as langue, a will to mean deriving from a will to be (= culture), specifically a “matrix of values governing expressive behavior”;
                            as parole, highly modulated volitional states – states of “pre-verbal meaning” arising in a specific communicative event.

The definition of language as volitional states means that culture (= a communally shared will to be) is what shapes language. Of course, every individual is free to accept or reject (in part, totally) his or her culture assimilated in childhood, and construct a culture shared with like-minded people. When s/he does so, s/he develops a new variety of her/his native language.

But how to define a culture. How to discover the culture of an interlocutor? (In fact, Task 2 was an impossible task because we did not yet come up with answers to these questions.)

 

23.10.06

 
Last lesson: a definition of “language” and of “the English language”

But what does it mean to “learn a language?” What do YOU want to learn?
What does it mean to “learn English?” Which English do YOU want to learn?

Kachru's 3 circles: norm providing, norm providing, norm developing, norm dependent.

To enter into another linguistic-cultural world (we will first enter into the world of Tolkien) it is necessary to put one's own linguistic-cultural world “between brackets”.
Brackets =  [ ] 
Example of student who apparently did not put her own system (values, fears, desires) between brackets before trying to understand the teacher (=enter into his world view).
 
FIRST MODEL:

R.P. with a posh inflection:

British Prime Minister Winston Churchill: "Let us therefore brace ourselves to our duty... so bear ourselves... that if the British Empire and its commonwealths last for a thousand years... men will still say... this was their finest hour!" ( House of Commons, June 18^th, 1940.)
                                      Listen> 
 
 

Lady Diana Frances Spenser, Princess of Wales: Interview on the BBC program Panorama, November 1995:  “The most daunting aspect was the media attention...”
“I don't want to be seen to ... be indulging in self-pity. I'm not.   I understand they have a job to do.   But...” (“Sloane” R.P. Accent)
                 Listen>  I.  II:   Read the text>
 
 

J. R. R. Tolkien, Oxford professor of English, author of studies on Anglo-Saxon and of the fantasy novels The Hobbit and The Fellowship of the Ring.  “There was one page of this particular [exam] paper that was left BLANK!   Glorious!  Nothing to read!  So I scribbled on it – I can't think why – 'In a hole in the ground lived a Hobbit...'”
Video>      Read the text>  
You may need Apple Quick Time software, downloadable free here.
 

24.10.06

Statistics on the composition of the class here.

Arrival of an Erasmus student (David) and review of the lesson on 20.10.06.
Not much remembered. Another proof that lecture lessons are worth very little?
But in theory it was “Socratic” interaction, not a lecture. As one says in Italian: Boh.
Maybe David's presence was intimidating....

SECOND STEP: Acquiring a language
Introjecting the will to mean of an upper class university professor from S.E. England.
Utterance openers in a study by S. R McAlister (Open University, 2001): click here. 
Clarification gambits here.  
 
R.P. without a posh inflection:
(In the case of dialogs with 2 speakers, the first uses R.P. and the second some regional variety)
(from an English textbook) BBC Weather Announcer
(from a real BBC program) Tim Sebastien (interviewer) and Robert Brown (ex-convict)
(from an English textbook) Miss Wright (an office manager) and Miss Davis (a secretary)
(from a film) Elizabeth (a young London professional) and Cynthia (a charwoman from Croydon)
 

27.10.06

Practice clarification gambits

ELF and the notion of “correct” English: review the discussion on 16.10.06 here (with interruptions for clarification).

Defining Tolkien's and Lady Di's “will to mean” that produces their characteristically “posh R.P.” way of speaking.

Distancing oneself from one's own culture (in particular the cultural traits antithetical to Tolkien's and Lady Di's cultural traits).     Maxims  <>  Judgments

Practice conversational gambits (with clarification gambits).

Practice discussing ELF as a speaker of posh R.P. might (stereotypical traits) or as J.R.R. Tolkien or Lady Diana might (cultural traits in their person-specific implementation).

Homework: Finish the cultural parameter sheet here* for Monday.
   *If you want more information on the words on the sheet, click here for an explanation.
Homework: Read Graddol pp 49-66
and “To be or not to be: success or failure in intercultural communication”

 

30.10.06

 
Discussion of the Cultural Dimensions Task.
Homework (the “real” Task 2): Write interrogation strategies to put to your Trinity College partner to see if s/he has the values you have attributed to her/him on your Cultural Dimensions Chart.
Give to your group leader by email an electronic copy of::
1) your Cultural Dimensions Chart marked B = Britons, T = Trinity, I = Italy, Y = you
2) a copy of your questions.
The group leader will give you a mark according to how plausible your markings are and how clever your interrogation strategies are.
For the group leader Evaluation Sheet see Task 2 (second attempt) in the TASKS section.
 

06.11.06

Discussion on Graddol pp 49-66 (in particular page 57)

Discussion on “To be or not to be” Read just the first four pages (up to “Not many companies — whether national, international, multinational or transnational — would agree, however, with this philosophy.”)

09.11.06
then
10.11.10
or the following week.

     
Evening with Trinity College students to prepare “food market” project.
7.30 pm – meet with the American students at the pizzeria DA REMO in Testaccio,
Piazza Santa Maria Liberatrice 44 (phone 06 574 6270)
Read what the famous London leisure magazine Time out says about the place here.
10 pm – who knows?
The next day (or the day after): Native informant role in an Italian food market.
I have prepared instructions on how to do the project – see Task 4 by clicking here.

14.11.06

First hour: last lesson
Second hour: test (esonero) – only a written test for 10 points, no oral.

20.11.06

Second evening at Trinity College (drinks and music on the campus) at 8 pm SHARP.
Clivio dei Publicii 7 (Colle Avventino)
Ethnographic research.

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Task 1:
Due date: e-mail to  632-L @ boylan.it  by Sunday, October 15^th.

Prepare the position paper described on 09.10.2006 (using the connectives typical of British academic English) to illustrate Graddol's stand on “English as a Lingua Franca”.  SEND IT TO ME BY E-MAIL (I need an electronic copy, not a paper copy.)  If you don't have a computer, click here.

Graddol's position paper is here.  (D. Graddol, English Next, Section 2)
Follow the model illustrated here.  (G. Rinaldi: http://digilander.libero.it/education/index.htm))
Use the connectives illustrated here.  (B. Daly's course in Writing Composition)

 
Here is the evaluation sheet with the criteria that will be used to judge your task.> 
 

     
TASK 2
Due date: e-mail to  632-L @ boylan.it  by Sunday, October 15^th

Write a list of 5 values* that you will internalize when you try to speak like a stereotypical Oxford professor of English (something like Tolkien in the film clip we saw).
Example of stereotypical values:
 “Self discipline, above all!”
 “Be gentlemanly!”
 “Say what you mean!   If possible, use euphemisms, if not, be blunt – but no vagueness!”
 
*How do you know the values of a stereotypical Oxford professor of English?
Search on the Internet the code words describing such a person (in bold face below):
  born in “South East England” into an “upper class British family”;
 went to “Eton”, the public school in Windsor, where “R.P. English” is spoken;
 then went to “Oxford or Cambridge” and acquired a “posh inflection” (or “inflexion”);
 is now an "Old Boy" and part of the “Establishment”.
Learn the meaning of these key words to guess the values of Brits who talk like Tolkien.
 
Actually, Tolkien himself was born in South Africa of middle-class British parents.  At the age of three, upon the death of his father (an English bank manager who had been sent to run a branch in South Africa), Tolkien went to England with his mother to live with her family in Birmingham.  His grandparents were well-to-do shopkeepers and could afford the best education for him.   He attended one of the top public schools in England (King Edward's, Birmingham) and then went on to Oxford. His R.P. English and posh mannerisms were therefore “learned”, not inherited.

 
 
Here is the evaluation sheet with the criteria that will be used to judge your task.>  
 

   
Task 3: •
Due date: consignment in class, October 20^th.

 Record a discussion of Graddol's chapter on “English as a Lingua Franca”, similar to the discussion you saw in our initial video (Joan Cone's English class in El Cerrito, California).
Use your notes from Task 1. Assume the persona described in Task 2 Use the interruption and connecting routines illustrated here  and here
 

Task 2

Second attempt.

Fill out the cultural parameter sheet here* marking it B = Britons, T = Trinity, I = Italy, Y = you
   *If you want more information on the words on the sheet, click here for an explanation.

Write interrogation strategies to put to your Trinity College partner to see if s/he has the values you have attributed to her/him on your Cultural Dimensions Chart.

Give to your group leader by email an electronic copy of::
1) your Cultural Dimensions Chart (marked),
2) a copy of your interrogation strategies.

The group leader will give you a mark according to how plausible your markings are and how clever your interrogation strategies are, using the Evaluation Sheet here.
If the Group Leader plays Santa Claus or in any case gives clearly unreasonable (untenable) marks, s/he will loose the points given in excess or not given in deficit.

Your group leader must send me the Evaluation Sheet, together with the Charts and the interrogation strategies, by Sunday, October 5^th.
 

Task 4

1.Hypothesize the cultural mind set of a (stereo)typical Trinity College student, comparing it with the British “Old Boy” mindset.. Then use Trompenaar's cultural dimensions to describe that mindset. Finally, invent a series of interrogation strategies to determine if your hypotheses are correct. (You have done all this already, for task 2, first and second attempt.).

2. Come WITH A PARTNER (or come “representing” your partner if your partner cannot come) to the pizza dinner on Thursday, November 9^th, together with the students from Trinity.  Choose a couple of Trinity students to do the food project with.  Agree on a day and time for the event.

3. BEGINNING AT THE DINNER and also during your shopping/cooking/eating experience, use your interrogation strategies and note (mentally) how your Trinity subjects respond.   AS SOON AS YOU CAN (without being noticed), write down what the subject says. This is good ethnographic practice because even only one day later your memory can “distort” your subject's remarks.

4. Back home, write a Report explaining what you discovered.  Explain why you think your hypotheses were proved or disproved.  Use British academic English (imagine you are Tolkien and write as he might write, using lots of connectives as in Task 1.) For the criteria of what constitutes a good Report, read the Evaluation Form here. You can discuss your results with the other members of your group to see if they arrived at the same conclusions. Then send your Report to your Group Leader (L5) for evaluation. Your Group Leader will then send me all the reports for her/his group and the evaluation form with the marks (available here) by November 20^nd.

5. Last step. Come to the social evening at Trinity College on Monday, November 20^th. (8 pm -- Clivio dei Publicii 7 on the Colle Avventino). There will be the same students as those at the pizza dinner, plus some new students. Try to find your American partners and spend some time with them explaining your ethnographic project and the conclusions you reached about them.  See if they agree with you.

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